Per Gartner’s research, the SaaS industry is expected to reach a value of $171.9 billion between 2021 and 2022. Also, per a Deloitte study conducted across 786 technical professionals in small and large organizations, 94% use cloud SaaS.
SaaS management can help B2B companies:
- Monitor the cost of SaaS applications
- Manage SaaS licenses and renewals
- Ensure the security of data resting in SaaS applications
- Maintain a useful SaaS inventory
- Provide visibility into multiple SaaS applications used by the business
- Reduce shadow IT
Therefore, if your B2B company is already or planning to become a powerhouse of SaaS applications, you must consider building a comprehensive B2B SaaS management strategy.
However, the first step in creating an effective B2B SaaS management strategy is identifying and understanding what SaaS management covers.
What Is B2B SaaS Management?
Managing multiple SaaS applications can be daunting for a B2B company. This is where SaaS management fits the picture. It covers purchasing, licensing, onboarding, renewals, and so on, of different SaaS applications.
In technical terms, across SaaS applications, SaaS management includes:
- Access and identity
- Application configuration
- Spend optimization
- User lifecycle Management (ULM)
- Auditability and visibility
In many B2B companies, SaaS management is a part of a broader SaaS-related initiative known as SaaSOps or SaaS Operations.
SaaSOps typically covers how companies find, manage and secure SaaS applications using automated and centralized operations.
Why Your B2B Company Needs SaaS Management
SaaS has changed the way B2B companies work, both in good and challenging ways. It has revolutionized the traditional practices used for deploying and managing software. However, B2B companies are finding it difficult to match pace with the sudden burst in SaaS adoption in the last few years.
Here are 4 reasons why your B2B company needs SaaS management:
Shadow IT Can Be Detrimental to Your Business’ SaaS Success
Shadow IT refers to the purchase and use of applications, devices, IT systems, and so on, in the absence of an IT team or without the approval of the IT team in a company.
The growth of shadow IT is directly proportional to increased business units, teams, and individuals using the SaaS applications. Research by Track Resources shows that shadow IT cloud usages are estimated to be 10x the size of known cloud usage. Also, 80% of employees admit to using SaaS applications at work without getting approval from IT.
With a proper SaaS management strategy in place, your B2B company can make all the existing SaaS applications easily discoverable and accessible, reducing duplication of SaaS applications and encouraging different business units to use existing applications.
Mismanagement of SaaS Licenses Can Hurt Your Business’ SaaS Investments
With an increase in the purchase of SaaS applications by multiple business units and teams, there is also an increase in the likelihood of their licenses getting underutilized and mismanaged. Moreover, unused licenses can become sources of potential security threats.
SaaS management can also help in optimizing SaaS licenses to ensure the number of licenses is equivalent to the number of users.
Per Zylo’s research on employees’ spending on SaaS applications, 55% of all transactions involving SaaS were not correctly attributed to software spending.
SaaS Automatic Renewals Can Become a Headache
One of the major drawbacks of SaaS applications is an automatic renewal. A majority of SaaS applications on the market get renewed automatically within 30, 60, or 90 days.
Therefore, if your B2B company does not notify the SaaS provider in time that you don’t want to renew, your license may get automatically renewed, pushing you into another forced payment cycle.
This is another trouble area where SaaS management can help. With a centralized platform, you can track the automatic renewal schedule of all your SaaS applications in one place and modify them per your requirements.
SaaS Applications Can Be Vulnerable to Data Breach
With the rapid increase in SaaS adoption, 32% of critical business data now resides in SaaS applications. However, many B2B companies do not have the necessary SaaS protection to safeguard this data.
A solid SaaS management strategy can help in mitigating risks associated with data breaches and cybersecurity when it comes to SaaS applications. You can use a centralized platform to assess and evaluate the security of different SaaS applications used by your company.
How to Build an Impactful SaaS Management Strategy
Instead of using an Excel workbook or a Google sheet to build an inventory of all the SaaS applications in your company, we highly recommend using a reliable SaaS management platform, such as BetterCloud and Onetool.
These days, you can easily find multiple SaaS management system providers on the market.
Most of these platforms comprise features that allow you to determine:
- Total number of SaaS applications used by your employees
- Application-wise spending
- Ownership of each application
- Total number of seats or licenses for each application
- Subscription auto-renewal dates and duration
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